SARATHY KORWAR
Photos by Fabrice Bourgelle. Download hi-res versions HERE.
kalak - Press Release
Kal - कल - Hindi/Urdu word meaning yesterday and also tomorrow
KALAK - palindromic form of ‘Kal’ - an ancient/futuristic cyclical folkloric rhythm, coined by Sarathy Korwar
We’re bound by the order of time. The more we synchronise ourselves with the clock, the more we fall out of sync with our bodies and nature - and with music.
Sarathy Korwar’s new album KALAK - the follow up to the politically charged, award-winning More Arriving - is an Indo-futurist manifesto. In rhythmic step with the past and the present, it sets out to describe a route forward. It celebrates a rich South Asian culture of music and literature, which resonates with spirituality and community while envisaging a better future from those building blocks. Meticulous production comes courtesy of New York electronic musician, DJ and producer Photay, translating these communal rhythms and practices into a timeless and groundbreaking electronic record.
In contrast to the direct anger on More Arriving, KALAK is a more nuanced and contemplative record, while maintaining the urgency of its predecessor. From the darkness and friction emerges a new energy to imagine things differently. There’s a spirituality and warmth at play in the polyrhythms, group vocals and melodic flourishes.
“The discourse around futurism is often deeply rooted in Eurocentric ideas of the world,” Korwar explains. “Much like Afro-futurism, Indo-futurism is moving the focus to the global south. In South Asia, culturally, we envisage our relationship to the future and the past in ideas of cyclicality. For example, karma as a concept. Time doesn’t have to flow in a line but can be understood to flow in a circle.
“In music, there’s an inherent hierarchy when you talk about left to right and top to bottom. I started thinking about a rhythmic notation system that was circular. These patterns started forming over time, and the more I thought about that, and the kind of symbolism that they began to have, I realised that this would be the core of the record.”
The KALAK rhythm is the one rhythm everyone knows. It is the rhythm that everyone is taught when they are young. It’s a call. A call to play together on special occasions. There are infinite ways to play the rhythm. Each community has their own version of it, like a dialect of the same language. Because it is a circular rhythm, it doesn’t always begin at the same place. There is no beginning and no end.
The past, present, future. Underground, ground, sky. Ancestors, us, descendants. Creator, preserver, destroyer. Trilogies exist everywhere. They are recognised a lot. The KALAK rhythm connects all three worlds.
The KALAK rhythm is the fulcrum upon which the 11-track project balances. After an intense lockdown-induced period of reflection and meticulous note-making, Korwar boiled this down to the circular KALAK symbol which he then presented to his band before recording began. With the symbol projected on the walls in order to decode and improvise around, Korwar had utter faith in the musicians he’d assembled and conviction in the concept.
KALAK was recorded in just a day and a half at Real World Studios. It features The Comet Is Coming’s Danalogue on synths, Tamar Osborn’s baritone sax, Al MacSween on keys and percussionist Magnus Mehta, who all performed on More Arriving. The album also features vocals by Kushal Gaya of Melt Yourself Down and Mumbai-based producer and electronic artist Noni-Mouse. “It was the first time any of us had been in a room making music with other people for almost a year,” Korwar explains. “It felt hopeful - a blessing that we could share this space together”.
Korwar worked closely with producer Photay (who has also worked with Yazmin Lacey, Madison McFerrin, Steve Spacek and Jordan Rakei) to layer those improvisations into the technicolour arrangements that appear on the album. “I first met Evan (Photay) when he did a remix of a track on my debut album,” Korwar expands. “He struck me as very thoughtful, warm and wise beyond his years. During the process of making this record, we talked on the phone a lot, between New York and London. Not about music production or the technicalities of music but about what we love about the act of making and performing music. We spoke of surrender, humility, collectivism, healing and the power of music. Those chats informed how we collaborated and I trusted him completely. We went back and forth with some songs and musical ideas, and were totally aligned with what the music needed to do.’’
Lead single ‘Utopia Is A Colonial Project’ is at the heart of the album. Based on Thomas More’s book from 1516, Korwar takes the idea of this imagined land of perfection and flips it on its head. “Utopia can be seen as a diagram for colonisation,” Korwar says. “Ideas of utopia are intrinsically linked to the mindset of settler colonialism. It comes from seeing the natural world as an inanimate resource rather than a living, sentient being. We need to be anti-utopian, and anti-dystopian. We need to be able to imagine futures drastically different to the kind of ‘utopias’ that are being sold by right-wing populist politicians in South Asia and beyond.”
On ‘Remember Begum Rokheya’ Korwar enforces the idea that marginalised voices from the past and the present can be highlighted in order to suggest a different perspective on the future. “When speaking about futurism, one of the fundamental questions is - who gets to speculate? Who gets to tell their story or vision of the future? Begum Rokheya is an example of someone with a radically different worldview and someone who we would generally not hear from. She was a Bengali feminist writer, and in her 1905 book Sultana’s Dream, she tells the story of reversed purdah, where peace-loving women overpower aggressive men to live in harmony with nature.”
It’s this sense of urgency that courses through the veins of KALAK. For Korwar, the future isn’t baked in nostalgia or a grand plan, but in the minutiae of everyday movements and conversations. “A lot of the work towards imagining a better future is happening in our daily lives,” he explains. “The road to a better future is not based in utopias or dystopias, but compromise and everyday struggle. It’s not a grand plan or vision. It’s messy and it’s chaotic.”
The final part of the KALAK project is realised in the cover artwork by New Delhi-based designer Sijya Gupta. Korwar and photographer friend Fabrice Bourgelle took a neon-lit sculpture of the KALAK symbol on a road trip around Southern India, through Chennai, Pondicherry and Auroville. The evocative shots appear on the cover of the various formats, with each one offering a different angle on the country, continent and culture that inspired the album.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Chennai in India. He began playing tabla aged 10, but was also drawn to the American music that he heard on the radio and leaking through the doorway of his local jazz music shop (Ahmad Jamal and John Coltrane were early discoveries). At 17, Korwar moved to Pune to study Environmental Science, but instead dedicated his time to music, practising tabla under the tutelage of Rajeev Devasthali, translating his skills to the western drum kit and playing as a session musician.
On completing these studies, he moved to London where he trained as a classical tabla player under the guidance of Sanju Sahai at SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies), focusing on the adaptation of Indian classical rhythmic material to non-Indian percussion instruments.
Korwar has since established himself as one of the most original and compelling voices in the UK jazz scene, leading the UPAJ Collective - a loose band of South Asian jazz and Indian classical musicians brought together through a love of collaboration and improvisation who set up a residency at the Jazz Café in London. Korwar has collaborated with the likes of Shabaka Hutchings (The Comet Is Coming), clarinettist Arun Ghosh and producer Hieroglyphic Being, as well as groups Penya and Ill Considered. He has toured with Kamasi Washington, Anoushka Shankar, Yussef Kamaal and Moses Boyd.
Korwar’s daring debut album, Day To Day, recorded with the support of the Steve Reid Foundation, was released by Ninja Tune in 2016. The album fused traditional folk music recorded with the Sidi community in India (combining East African, Sufi and Indian influences) with contemporary jazz and electronics.
In November 2018, Gearbox Records released a triple vinyl live album by Sarathy Korwar and UPAJ Collective. My East Is Your West, performed and recorded at a sold-out Church of Sound show, is a brilliant and unique blend of London's new jazz talent with Indian classical instrumentation. A critically-acclaimed take on the cultural appropriation of ‘spiritual’ Indo-jazz, the three-hour show was recorded following a single 45-minute rehearsal. The resulting album was awarded The Guardian's Contemporary Album of the Month.
Korwar released his second studio album, the politically charged More Arriving, through The Leaf Label in July 2019. A leap forward from his previous releases, it incorporated rappers from Mumbai and New Delhi, spoken word and his own Indian classical and jazz performances. It’s an honest reflection of Korwar’s experience of being Indian in a divided Britain and walked away with the Best Independent Album at the 2020 AIM Awards, up against the likes of Nick Cave and Kim Gordon. It was also awarded MOJO’s Jazz Album of the Year and was shortlisted for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards, the Jazz FM Awards and the Songlines Awards.
In 2022, Korwar released two collaborative albums - the eponymous Flock with the London based improvisational quintet on Strut, and Shruti Dances with Auntie Flo on Make Music.
Indo-futurist manifesto KALAK followed in November 2022 - Korwar’s third studio album. In rhythmic step with the past and the present, it sets out to describe a route forward. It celebrates a rich South Asian culture of music and literature, which resonates with spirituality and community, while envisaging a better future from those building blocks. Meticulous production comes courtesy of New York electronic musician, DJ and producer Photay, translating these communal rhythms and practices into a timeless and groundbreaking electronic record. The Guardian placed it at #2 in their Best Global Albums of 2022.
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Short Bio
Sarathy Korwar is a drummer, composer and producer raised in India and based in London. Korwar has established himself as one of the most original and compelling voices in the UK jazz scene. His music fuses jazz, electronics, Indian folk and classical influences with a focus on decoloniality, community, race and transcendence. His latest album, KALAK, is an Indo-futurist manifesto that celebrates a rich South Asian culture of music and literature and urges a cure for historical amnesia. The Guardian placed it at #2 in their Best Global Albums of 2022. In 2023, KALAK won the Songlines award for best album (Asia/Pacific).
Korwar has toured and collaborated with the likes of Anoushka Shankar, Kamasi Washington, Metropole Orchestra and Shabaka Hutchings and performed at festivals including North Sea Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Winter Jazz New York, Dekmantel and many more. His music has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Quietus, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone along with support from NPR, KEXP, BBC Radio 1, Radio 3 and 6 Music.
Quotes
“SARATHY INSTANTLY CAUGHT MY ATTENTION WHEN HE SAID HE WANTED TO MAKE AN ALBUM THAT EMBRACED BOTH INDIAN FOLK MUSIC AND JAZZ - TWO WORLDS THAT HAVE HAD A BIG INFLUENCE ON ME. HIS ALBUM SUCCEEDS IN BRINGING THESE THINGS TOGETHER IN AN ELEGANT WAY, BUT IT’S HIS OWN STYLE AND IDEAS THAT COME THROUGH THE MOST IN THE MUSIC. REFRESHINGLY DIFFERENT, THIS IS A DEEP AND POWERFUL LISTENING EXPERIENCE.”
- FOUR TET (DAY TO DAY)
“AN EXCEPTIONAL DEBUT BY THIS MULTI-PERCUSSIVE ARTIST FUSING JAZZ, ELECTRONIC AND INDIAN HARMONICS.”
- GILLES PETERSON (DAY TO DAY)
“DEEP, DARK DRUMBEATS CREATE A MESMERISING STORY”
- 5/5 THE GUARDIAN, GLOBAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH, #2 GLOBAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR.
‘‘AN INDO-FUTURIST MANIFESTO VIA SOPHISTICATED AND INTENSE RHYTHMIC INVESTIGATIONS”
- LEAD REVIEW 4/5, MOJO
“THIS IS REBEL MUSIC AS PASSIVE RESISTANCE, BLISSFULLY EMBODYING CHANGE”
- 8/10 UNCUT
“THIS ALBUM MANAGED TO PROJECT AN EVEN SIMPLER AND MORE ACCESSIBLE SURFACE WITH EXTRAORDINARY DEPTHS OF REFERENCE AND FEELING”
- THE WIRE
**** A SPIRITUAL MASTERCLASS
- MOJO RISING (MY EAST IS YOUR WEST (MY EAST IS YOUR WEST)
“ONE OF THE BEST THINGS WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO PLAY ON THE RADIO FOR A VERY LONG TIME”
- GILLES PETERSON
"PLAY IT LOUD. PLAY IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH. NOT ONLY IS THIS THE BEST SONG OF 2019 SO FAR. I THINK IT MIGHT ALSO BE THE MOST 2019 SONG OF 2019 (BOL, MORE ARRIVING)
- PETE PAPHIDES
"KORWAR TAKES IN THE POLITICAL AND RADICAL HISTORY OF JAZZ AS A VOICE OF THE DISENFRANCHISED, AND KORWAR APPLIES IT TO THE INDIAN DIASPORA EXPERIENCE IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN”
- THE VINYL FACTORY
“HIS RHYTHMICALLY INTENSE, ENTRANCING VISION ADDS A WHOLE NEW SPIN TO THE INDO-JAZZ CONTINUUM"
- 5/5 MOJO
“IT’S A THRILLING MIX OF INDIAN INSTRUMENTATION AND JAZZ, FEATURING SEVERAL ASIAN MCS AND POETS WHO ADDRESS THEMES SUCH AS LAZY STEREOTYPING AND THE NEED TO CHANGE THE EAST-WEST NARRATIVE. IT’S A TIMELY SOUNDTRACK TO THESE DIVISIVE TIMES”
- SONGLINES
"SUPERB... AN ADRENALISED, PERCUSSION-LED, CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING THRILL RIDE"
- ELECTRONIC SOUND
ALBUMS
